Case Mod - In Progress Project: Cold lava~A custom WC'ing project -1st Oct- The cursed log part 2

Cant your dad pay? He WAS the one that broke it?

 

@Nicksen: That Wouldn't be very nice would it? seeing as I use all HIS tools

So after quite a while, I managed to pack in a sufficient amount of modding to make an update.
Its getting crazy at my place, trying to get stuff finished for the move, but Im going at it as much as I can.

So update time:

Of reservoirs and peltiers


It was time to get the reservoir finished so the first thing I did was to attach the thermostat's thermal probe to the res.
To do this I drilled a hole and stuck it into the reservoir with this:



Arctic silver thermal epoxy.
This should keep it nice and sealed, without isolating it from the water temperature.

Here it is in place hardening nicely:



And a closeup.



It will need some cleaning up, but nothing major. I've actually never used this stuff. So fingers crossed.


The next part was the upper part of the res.
I placed the peltier waterblock on the cover to have an idea of what it was going to be like.



Some time later, as I mentioned before, my dad chucked a box on it and broke it, but after inspecting it, I realised that it wasn't so bad.
So I cut out a piece of acrylic and stuck it underneath with clear epoxy. It seems to be holding quite well.

So now I needed a cold plate for the peltiers. And I was trying to figure out the best wat to attach it to the cover, When i suddenly remembered that I had an extra peltier block top lying around (My friend had cut 2 of each type, when I only needed 2 for the GPUs.)

It would be a perfect match. I took out the saw and chopped it up.



After some cutting and some filing:



Voila...Instant bracket.

Next up I had to make a cold plate for the peltier coolers.
So Using some copper i made this:



(Don't mind the big groove in teh block...grinder mishap )

Sticking it in the bracket proved easier than I had expected. I was going to screw it in place, but I discovered that the rtv silicone is more than enough to hold these two together



I drilled some holes and countersunk them. Then i fitted some Inox screws in place and I stuck it to the res cover.




Next up I drilled the holes for the Uv LEDS that are going to be on the cover too.
3 Uv LEDs for the bling and 2 Orange LEDS to show me when the peltiers come on.
Then I filed some grooves for the peltier cables to sit properly in the cover.
I also lapped the surfaces, applied artic silver to the peltiers and put the blocks in place, whilst sealing the screw holes with rtv. (I was on a roll and I forgot to take pictures :s)



Here you see the peltiers in place ready to be screwed...

The springs were a little long, so I chopped them off and added some washers to keep things nice and tight.



And here the finished assembly:



Then I stuck the LEDS in place and let dry overnight.

The next day I decided to give the system a little try:





The test was fun. The peltiers definitely work. The plate gets real cold, but I was half expecting it to freeze over
But anyways...It seems my waterblock works, because After a few minutes I held my hand against the hot side of the waterblock and it was at ambient temperature.
Sweetness

Thats it for today guys.
Thanks for watching and for those who voted for me
(Although I don't find it fair to pit me against a Dreadnought mod, Bill AND Cheaps at the same time. Comeon how was I ever supposed to win? )

 

Nice to see you are into this project again! Process is fantastic so far glad that the peltiers are working I really cant wait for some torture tests!
I also like your pr0n references .....
"Here you see the peltiers in place ready to be screwed..." LoL Mod on brother!

 

Good project , i will be folowing !

 

i don't think the thermal paste helps a single thing, other than that it looks good so far

 

Hah thanks. I read too many of cheaps' threads....
I wouldn't say the process is fantastic, but I am reasonably pleased so far

And yes I can't wait either. I just glued the res together

Thanks a lot!

You mean the epoxy I used for the thermal probe?
Hmm, do you mean that normal epoxy would have worked just as well?

The thing is I had some, so I figured it would probably be better because it is made to stick heatsinks to ram chips. Anyway.....can't go wrong with it really can I?

Thanks for the comments!

 

what basicly happens with heatsinks on ram chips/cpu's is that you create a vacuum,

what it hink is that the thermal paste doesn't help (like too much could work as an isolation)
but i guess it isn't bad either..

 

Amazing update. And I knew you couldn't ask your dad to pay. It was a joke

Looking forward to see the res!

 

Putting too much thermal paste on will always create issues. The idea is to make the layer as thin as possible because the intention of the paste is to fill the microscopic gaps on the chip surface to make it a completely (or close to) flat surface for heat transfer. Too much paste will make the gap between chip and heatsink larger and therefore give worse performance.

 

Thanks for all the info about the paste guys.

But The reason I put thermal epoxy is because the thermal probe on the circuit is just an exposed chip. Therefore to use it in water, I had to embed it in something, and everyone recommends embedding it in epoxy.

So seeing as I had some arctic silver thermal epoxy, I used that to seal the chip.

working slowly so far, but getting there....
C ya for an update as soon as I can.

 

Looking good m8. Subscribed for the first time. 5 stars from me.

 

I still haven't figured out how to subscribe?? XD

 

Great work on the peltier blocks and res, Bad_cancer .

I too cant wait to see some torture tests.

If your signed in, its on the thread tools button at the top of the page^^.

 

Thanks

 

Hi everyone and thanks for the comments.
Im back after a long stay in the hospital.
I had a bad fall and broke my arm. I had surgery and now have a plate and screws in my radial bone. I also have a plaster on my right arm and a badly scrapped knee. So I can't walk properly and I can't use my right arm for anything. Its a pain because I have hardly any work left to do on cold lava

Anyways, I'll try to get to it as soon as possible. So stay tuned.

Thanks and see you soon (should be 5 weeks)

 

Mate that really sucks about your arm, I hope it heals up well.

 

It seems to be healing well, but its still in a half plaster.

It's not all bad news though because I just got married
But I had to get married in a plaster on the right arm

Ah well, could have been worse.. I'm just annoyed that I can't finish the project...
There is so little to do

 

And congratulations on your Marriage .

 

Oh man sorry to hear that, that sucks hope you heal quickly but congrats on your marriage!!!
We need pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Pictures of the wedding or of the broken bone?